Armed Cocaine Dealer Sentenced to 15 Years

MADISON, WIS. - Scott C. Blader, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Martell Norris, 37, Chicago, Illinois was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to two concurrent 15-year prison terms for possessing cocaine base (crack cocaine) with intent to distribute and possessing a loaded firearm as a felon. 

Norris pled guilty to these offenses on October 31, 2019.  On May 16, 2019, he arranged to sell cocaine to one of his customers.  Law enforcement learned of the planned sale, which was to occur on East Washington Avenue in Madison, and moved in to arrest Norris.  Norris fled in a vehicle, triggering a high-speed chase, during which he nearly hit a police officer and caused a nearby bicyclist to crash.  Shortly thereafter, Norris ran into an apartment building on South Blount Street where he was arrested. 

At the South Blount Street location, Norris discarded a backpack he had been wearing down a trash chute that emptied in a ground level dumpster.  In the dumpster, officers found Norris’s backpack which contained 125 grams of powder cocaine, 75 grams of crack cocaine, a digital scale, and a loaded, semiautomatic pistol.

While Norris was subject to a 15-year minimum mandatory based on his firearm possession after having been convicted of three violent felonies, Judge Peterson indicated that he would have provided Norris the same sentence even if no minimum mandatory applied.  The facts at sentencing showed that Norris was a kilogram-level cocaine dealer and possessed additional high powered firearms.  Judge Peterson explained that a lengthy prison term was necessary to protect the public from Norris because he used firearms in his drug dealing business and because, in selling large quantities of cocaine, he exploited addicts and drove them into poverty. 

The charges against Norris were the result of an investigation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, Dane County Narcotics Task Force, and Mauston Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy M. O’Shea handled this case.

This case was brought as part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative, the U.S. Justice Department’s program to reduce violent crime.  The PSN approach emphasizes coordination between state and federal prosecutors and all levels of law enforcement to address gun crime, especially felons illegally possessing firearms and ammunition, and violent crimes and drug crimes that involve the use of firearms.